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Zambian president orders probe into stadium stampede
LUSAKA (AFP) - Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa ordered an inquiry Sunday into the cause of a stampede that killed 12 supporters and left dozens more wounded at a stadium following an international football match.
Mwanawasa said he was saddened by the deaths after the Zambia-Congo match in the northern Copper Belt region and had asked authorities to immediately put in place measures to prevent any similar occurance in future.
"The president has called for an enquiry to establish the cause of the accident that killed 12 fans," Mwanawasa's spokesman John Musukuma told state television.
The stampede on Saturday evening left 46 others wounded at the Chililabombwe stadium where Zambia beat Congo 3-0 in an African Nations Cup qualifier.
Twelve people were still being treated in hospital while the rest have been discharged after treatment, Sports Minister Gabriel Namulambe said in a statement.
"Those who are admitted are in a stable condition," Namulambe added.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the accident had been caused by a group of supporters outside the stadium who attempted to gain entry when the match had finished, said the minister.
Nine men and three women were killed, all of them Zambians.
The match was played at the 18,000-seat stadium in Chililabombwe, close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, after riots earlier this year at the country's main stadium in the capital Lusaka.
The match had been due to kick off at 3:00 pm local time but eventually got under way an hour later as officials waited for the stadium to fill up.
A report in the state-run Sunday Times said there had been a "state of confusion" at the Konkola Mine hospital, where many of the injured were taken, with police reinforcements sent in to deal with the large number of relatives trying to identify their loved ones.
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